NPR's popular national show Talk of the Nation dedicated its show Tuesday to the 30th anniversary of the Mariel boatlift and its impact on South Florida.

The show was broadcast from The Miami Herald-WLRN radio studios.

The guests included Maydel Santana-Bravo, director of marketing at Florida International University who came to the United States with her family via Mariel when she was 11.

Also taking part in the program was former assistant city manager Cesar Odio, who was charged with helping relocate many of the 125,000 who arrived in Key West between April and September 1980. Many wanted to settle in Miami. Miami Herald reporter Luisa Yanez, who helped create the newspaper's Mariel Database along with Rob Barry and Stephanie Rosenblatt, also took part in the show to talk about the database which lists the names of all the refugees and those of the boats that brought them to America.